Bender Consulting

What Bender Consulting does

Bender Consulting Services, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-headquartered (Moon Township, PA) disability employment consulting firm founded in 1995 by Joyce Bender. The company operates a portfolio of professional services centered on its "DisabilitySmart Engine" framework: disability talent placement (Products & Services), digital accessibility compliance testing (HighTest, covering Section 508, WCAG, and VPAT conformance), strategic consulting for disability engagement (DisabilitySmart Engagement Strategy), workforce training, and retained executive search for disability leadership. Revenue is generated through fee-based professional services engagements sold to corporate employers; pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales, virtual and in-person job fairs, an online job board, and content marketing through the 20-year "Disability Matters with Joyce Bender" podcast.

The company serves two primary customer segments: corporate employers (with named enterprise clients including UPMC, PNC Bank, Accenture, Procter & Gamble, Highmark Health, Peraton, PPG, and Sodexo across healthcare, financial services, technology, CPG, and manufacturing verticals) and job seekers with disabilities. It also operates the Bender Leadership Academy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit established in 2018 that extends its mission to youth with disabilities. Bender is the first company certified as a Disability-Owned Business Enterprise (DOBE) by Disability:IN and holds WBENC Women's Business Enterprise certification, positioning it within corporate supplier diversity programs. The firm is privately held, has 51-100 employees, and has operated without external institutional funding across its 30-year history.

Name

Bender Consulting

Legal name

Bender Consulting Services, Inc.

Website

https://benderconsult.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Bender Consulting Services, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based disability employment consulting firm, founded in 1995, that places job seekers with disabilities into corporate roles and provides digital accessibility testing and inclusion strategy consulting to enterprise employers across the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Disability Employment & Workforce Inclusion Consulting

NAICS

Vocational Rehabilitation Services (624310), Human Resources Consulting Services (541612)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Disability Services & Assistive Solutions (Accessibility, Assistive Tech) (BPAGALAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Disability Services & Independent Living Support (BPAGAEAG)

Keywords

• Disability employment services
• Talent placement
• Digital accessibility testing
• Workforce inclusion consulting
• Disability engagement strategy

Headquarters

HQ city

Pittsburgh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Disability Talent Placement: Recruitment and placement of consultants with disabilities into employer organizations. Employers pay for successful placements of qualified disability talent.
2. Disability Engagement Consulting: Strategy consulting for organizations to build disability engagement and accessibility initiatives, including training and assessment services.
3. Digital Accessibility Testing Services: Testing services for websites, apps, documents, and kiosks for compliance with accessibility standards and regulations.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Bender Consulting Services, Inc. places qualified candidates with disabilities into corporate roles, provides digital accessibility testing of apps, websites, documents, and kiosks against Section 508 and WCAG standards, and delivers consulting, training, and retained executive search to help organizations build sustainable disability engagement across candidate, employee, and customer experiences. These offerings are unified under the proprietary DisabilitySmart Engine™ framework and the HighTest™ accessibility testing service.

Product overview

Bender Consulting Services operates as a disability employment consulting firm offering a portfolio of interconnected services centered around the DisabilitySmart Engine™ platform. The core offering includes disability employment placement and talent acquisition (Products & Services), digital accessibility testing (HighTest), and strategic consulting for disability engagement. Supporting services include workforce training programs, executive search for disability leadership, an online job board with virtual career fair capabilities, and the Disability Matters podcast. The company serves as a bridge connecting employers with qualified candidates from the disability community, providing end-to-end support from talent acquisition to workplace inclusion strategy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• DisabilitySmart Engine™: A continuum of services provided by Bender Consulting Services representing the connectivity of understanding the Disability Community experience as candidates, employees, and customers. Helps corporations and organizations make decisions about disability engagement and accessibility.
• HighTest

Products and services

• DisabilitySmart Engine Proprietary service framework and continuum of services that connects the disability community experience across candidate, employee, and customer touchpoints, enabling organizations to make disability-smart decisions and implement sustainable disability engagement strategies.
• Disability Talent Placement (Products & Services)
• HighTest Digital Accessibility Testing
• DisabilitySmart Engagement Strategy
• Workforce Training
• Disability Leadership Search

Quantifiable outcome

• Nearly 100% of employers who hire through Bender will hire a second person with a disability
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• Highmark HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 February 2025Bender partnered with Highmark Health for disability employment opportunities. Karen Hanlon (COO) participated as guest speaker at Thornburgh Lecture Series. Mick Malec serves as Enterprise Technology Officer at both organizations and received Technology Champion Award.
• Disability:INflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 July 2024Joint effort to advance employment opportunities for people with disabilities. As the first DOBE certified company, Bender collaborates with Disability:IN (led by CEO Jill Houghton) and former Congressman Tony Coelho to address the 40% gap in workforce participation rate for people with disabilities.
• Tony CoelhoflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 July 2024Former Congressman and primary author of the ADA joins Bender/Disability:IN collaboration. Provides expertise, guidance, and advocacy voice to advance disability employment at local, state, and national levels.
• Bender/Coelho Disability ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 March 2023National initiative launched by Joyce Bender and Tony Coelho to elevate the critical connection between employers and the disability community. A challenge to Corporate America to increase disability employment.
• Bender Leadership AcademycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit organization established in 2018 by Joyce Bender, committed to expanding opportunities for employment of people with disabilities from youth through adulthood. Extension of Bender Consulting's mission.
• National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOver two decades of partnership with NTID at Rochester Institute of Technology. Gerald Homme serves on advisory committee. NTID serves over 1,000 deaf and hard of hearing students; Bender receives applicants from NTID alumni.
• Caption FirstminorOthersDisability-Owned Business Enterprise providing open captioning for Disability Matters podcast for 20 years. Pat Graves is CEO and founder.
• Epilepsy Association of Western/Central Pennsylvania (EAWCP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoyce Bender serves as Chair of the Board. Partnership for annual family fun run/walk events at PNC Park to raise funds and awareness for epilepsy. CEO Peggy Beem Jelley is a disability rights leader.
• Voice AmericacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPlatform hosting Disability Matters with Joyce Bender podcast for 20 years. Longest-running international talk radio show focused on the disability community.
• American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoyce Bender serves as Vice Chair and Past Chair of the Board. Active partnership in Disability Mentoring Day programming and advocacy initiatives.
• Bazelton Center for Mental Health LawcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoyce Bender serves on the Board of Trustees. Bender received Visionary Award at Bazelon's Annual Awards Reception.
• Variety, The Children's CharityminorOthersPartnership for programs including My Bike, My Stroller, and My Voice programs for children with disabilities. Bender participates in annual gala events.
• 412 Ability TechminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity organization hosting events like Resilient Together virtual gatherings. Joyce Bender presents on employer hiring support for disabled individuals.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• SourceAmerica: AbilityOne-affiliated nonprofit that creates employment opportunities for people with disabilities through federal contracts; comparable to Bender's mission of disability employment but operates a much larger, government-anchored placement model.
• Disability:IN: Industry association and certification body for disability inclusion in business; sets the DOBE standard Bender holds, operates supplier diversity programs, and runs the annual Disability:IN conference where Bender is an active participant and partner.
• The Arc: National community-based nonprofit organization advocating for and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including employment supports; comparable mission overlap with Bender's disability employment focus.
• Ingeus: International employment services provider with dedicated disability and welfare-to-work programs; competes with Bender in placement and disability employment strategy but operates at much larger scale across multiple geographies.
• Goodwill Industries International: Large nonprofit workforce development network with dedicated programs for people with disabilities; competes for the same candidate pool and employer partnerships as Bender, but at significantly greater scale and geographic reach.

Emerging players

• EARN (Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion): DOL-funded employer-focused resource that provides training, technical assistance, and best practices for disability inclusion; overlaps with Bender's workforce training and DisabilitySmart Engagement Strategy consulting offerings.
• Job Accommodation Network (JAN): Free consulting service funded by the U.S. Department of Labor that provides individualized workplace accommodation solutions and disability employment guidance; an indirect but highly adjacent peer in Bender's employer training and accommodation consulting space.
• Ableism: Disability employment and consulting services firm focused on connecting companies with disabled talent; competes with Bender in placement and corporate consulting, with comparable mission but smaller brand presence.

Direct peers

• Level Access: Largest dedicated digital accessibility solutions provider, offering accessibility testing, VPAT/ACR reports, and remediation services; directly competes with Bender's HighTest accessibility testing service at a larger technology-enabled scale.
• Lime Connect: Nonprofit that connects university students and alumni with disabilities to internship and full-time opportunities with corporate partners (including Fortune 500s); highly comparable to Bender's placement and corporate engagement model, with similar employer roster.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@benderconsulting
• Xx.com/bendercompanies
• Facebookfacebook.com/benderconsultingservices
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/697044

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bender Consulting